The Aftermath of Saddam Hussein's Capture

Germany, France, China and Russia -- nations strongly opposed to the Iraq conflict -- said they hoped Saddam's capture could foster stability and democracy in Iraq and reconcile the world community. Read More

Former U.N. weapons inspector Scott Ritter, reached at his home on Sunday, said, “It’s great that they caught him. The man was a brutal dictator who committed terrible crimes against his people. But now we come to rest of story. We didn’t go to war to capture Saddam Hussein. We went to war to get rid of weapons of mass destruction. Those weapons have not been found.” Read More

From Robert Fisk: For Saddam has bequeathed to his country and to its would-be "liberators" something uniquely terrible: continued war. And there was one conclusion upon which every Iraqi I spoke to yesterday agreed.This bedraggled, pathetic man with his matted, dirty hair, living in a hole in the ground with three guns and cash as his cave-companions - this man was not leading the Iraqi insurgency against the Americans. Indeed, more and more Iraqis were saying before Saddam's capture that the one reason they would not join the resistance to US occupation was the fear that - if the Americans withdrew - Saddam would return to power. Now that fear has been taken away. So the nightmare is over - and the nightmare is about to begin. For both the Iraqis and for us. Read More..

It was pretty much of a shock to learn of Saddam Hussein's capture so soon. This capture comes timely for the incumbent President, and the immediate propaganda value will be enormous. But has Bush walked into a trap? Read MORE

Some specialists warned even before Sunday's announcement that Saddam's death or detention would prove largely irrelevant to the difficult problems faced by US and coalition forces in Iraq, both because loyalty to Hussein – or even to his Ba'ath Party – had ceased to be a catalyst for the insurgency long before and because the complex internal political situation in Iraq has begun to fuel more tension and violence in any event. Some even suggested that Saddam's capture might actually create new problems for the occupation by empowering sectors in the country's Shi'a community to test the occupation and back up their demands for direct elections to a new Iraqi government with more militant tactics. Read More

"I only wish it was not the Americans who got him. I don't like Saddam but as an Arab I wouldn't like to see them (Americans) dragging him around Baghdad," said Syrian student Abdul-Nasser. For others, the capture was disappointing news. Saddam may have been seen as a dictator who oppressed his people, but many also saw him as the only Arab leader who stood up to the United States, which they said rode roughshod through the region. "Of course it's bad news. To us, Saddam was a symbol of defiance to the U.S. plans in the region. And we support any person who stands in the face of the American dominance," said Azzam Hneidi, an Islamist member of Jordan's parliament. Read More

President Bush made a televised statement from the White House, saying: "The capture of this man was crucial to the rise of a free Iraq." But will the capture of the man designated by the Pentagon as the "Ace of Spades" end the Iraqi resistance? Will the Iraqi people now embrace the Bush administration's conception of "freedom"? Read More

Mowaffak al-Rubaie, a Shiite member of Iraq's interim Governing Council, his voice filled with emotion, says, "This is really a great day for all Iraqis." He predicts the insurgency will cease. "Absolutely this is the end of it. There is no doubt in my mind. This is very demoralizing and devastating for them [the insurgents]." But outside Iraq, Arab leaders generally do not believe the capture of Hussein will bring an end to the violence, says Hisham Yusuf, spokesman for Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa. "We believe that the resistance in Iraq is a result of something different [from one organized by Saddam]. Some of them are from the former regime. But some are ordinary Iraqis who want to see an end to the occupation. The Iraqi situation will improve only when the Iraqi people are given a clear timetable for the end of occupation," he says. The US military also is signaling caution at overly optimistic expectations. Read More

  Go to Latest Posting

---

Comments 0

---